Hello, everyone!

Time to continue this series that I must finish before the end of the year! While my regular readers already know what it is about, I will give a brief explanation for newcomers.

The idea is to relate the chess scenario to significant events in world history and explore how our beloved game evolved during periods of remarkable transformation for humanity.

Below are links to the first three episodes. Please note that each text can be read independently, so feel free to start with whichever one interests you the most.

• The Chessboard Of The World: 1900-1920

• The Chessboard Of The World: 1920-1940

• The Chessboard Of The World: 1940-1960

Now, let's move on to the period between 1960 and 1980!

Once again, we must remember that the mentioned facts do not always directly impact chess. Nevertheless, it is important to understand the global situation and have an overall view, to be reminded that the two worlds did not exist separately.

These two decades marked the peak of the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union, so many of the events are related to that. As always, however, I also included some major scientific and aviation developments.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. 1961

2. 1962

3. 1969

4. 1976

5. 1979

CONCLUSION

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1961

World - Construction Of The Berlin Wall

The most iconic symbol of the Cold War was built in the early 1960s: the infamous Berlin Wall, which divided the German capital into two parts: the capitalist Western sector, administered by the US, UK, and France; and the communist Eastern sector, under the control of the USSR.

On Sunday, 13 August 1961, the population woke up in shock to realize that free movement between the different regions of the city would no longer be permitted. It is worth remembering that the whole structure was built in record time, practically overnight, taking everyone by surprise.

The communist government aimed to stop the eastern people from emigrating to the West, something that was obviously problematic for the regime's propaganda. Please note that the city was located entirely within East Germany. Therefore, the Wall effectively placed West Berlin under siege, forcing it to be supplied by air for the next few years.

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Chess - Tal vs. Botvinnik Rematch

While the Soviet authorities in Germany were constructing barriers, two other Soviets were determining the World Chess Championship titleholder just a few months earlier. From 15 March to 12 May 1961, former champion Mikhail Botvinnik and current champion Mikhail Tal played their long-awaited rematch in Moscow.

The previous year, in 1960, Tal had convincingly defeated his rival with a score of 12.5-8.5. According to the rules at the time, Botvinnik was thus entitled to a rematch without having to play the entire Candidates cycle.

This time, he won convincingly, scoring 13-8 and regaining the world title. Commentators attributed the victory to Botvinnik's superior strategy and ability to combat Tal's attacking style.

You can check the game in round 13 below, annotated by GM @BryanSmith.

This victory made Botvinnik the first and only person to hold the title of World Champion on three separate occasions, as he had already lost and regained it against Smyslov earlier.

However, in 2002, Yuri Averbakh revealed that Tal had health issues relating to his kidneys and that his doctors in Riga had advised him to postpone the match. Nevertheless, he decided to play, believing he had a good chance of winning anyway.

Without knowing all the information or the kind of pressure he was under, it is hard to give an opinion, but in principle, I believe that once a player has agreed to play, there can be no excuses later. We can say that Mikhail Tal was a gentleman for never publicly declaring it.

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1962

World - Cuban Missile Crisis

If you are afraid of nuclear war today, I will not blame you. But rest assured that we are not the first generation in history to fear it. In fact, the world came much closer to such a catastrophic situation in October 1962 during the Cuban Missile Crisis.

This 'event' was a 13-day confrontation that brought the planet to the brink of mass destruction when the USSR secretly deployed nuclear missiles in Cuba. The crisis began when spy planes from the USA discovered these sites, causing chaos, mutual accusations, and, of course, panic spread through both populations.

Following intense negotiations, Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev agreed to remove the missiles from Cuba, while American President John F. Kennedy promised not to invade the island and to remove their missiles from Turkey, a country close to Russia. Would the outcome have also been peaceful if this had happened in 2025? Nobody knows.

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Chess - Candidates Tournament in Curaçao

It was also in 1962 that one of the most controversial tournaments in chess history took place. I am referring to the Candidates Tournament held that year on the Caribbean Island of Curaçao. (I love how random this is.)

As expected, many of the top players from the USSR were competing to become Mikhail Botvinnik's next challenger. But there was an outsider. Bobby Fischer, the rising American star, arrived as one of the firm favorites following his excellent performance at the Interzonal tournament in Stockholm a few months earlier.

However, Fischer only finished fourth, achieving a score of 14/28. He did not take this well, later accusing the top three Soviet players (Tigran Petrosian, Paul Keres, and Efim Geller) of agreeing in advance to draw their games against each other quickly in order to conserve their energy for playing him.

Although there is no concrete evidence, this accusation is widely believed to be true, with many players from that era seemingly affirming that it was common practice, especially when considering the broader context of the Cold War, which also extended to chess.

Tigran Petrosian, the winner, went on to play in the 1963 World Championship match, where he defeated Botvinnik to become the ninth player in history to achieve the greatest title. Fischer, on the other hand, had to wait another 10 years for his chance to come around again.

Whether true or not, this controversial case prompted FIDE to change the format of the Candidates to a knockout tournament.

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1969

World -  Moon Landing

One of the most significant milestones in technological advancement took place in 1969, a year that is arguably the most important in human history. Interestingly, this is also when my biological mother was born.

Anyway, if you don't believe in the moon landing, please spare us your conspiracy theories in the comments. I am not interested. After all, the Apollo 11 mission took place in that year, carrying Commander Neil Armstrong and pilot Buzz Aldrin to become the first people in history to set foot on the lunar soil.

Shortly after leaving the spacecraft, Armstrong himself said:

That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.

So, I don't even need to explain why such a fact had to be mentioned here, do I? It is worth remembering that this event also marked the end of the famous 'Space Race', one of many disputes during the Cold War.

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Chess - Spassky Becomes World Champion

While the USSR might have been losing the Space Race in 1969, in chess, they were still the dominant force. This was proven once again when Tigran Petrosian and Boris Spassky, both Soviets, fought for the world title for the second consecutive time. The two players had already competed against each other in 1966, when Petrosian won by a score of 12.5–11.5.

However, the rematch had a different outcome: Spassky became the champion after defeating his rival 12.5–10.5 in the World Championship match, which took place in Moscow from 14 April to 17 June.

One decisive game took place in round 19, when he won playing with the white pieces, opening a two-point lead with only five more games to go. The subsequent rounds secured him the title. You can see what happened below, annotated by NM @GreenLaser:

As we all know, the endless cycle of Soviet titles came to an end three years later when Spassky faced Bobby Fischer in the famous 'Match of the Century' in Iceland and was defeated.

Nevertheless, despite the American's convincing victory, which led many to consider him the GOAT, it is undeniable that the Soviet Union generally finished the 'Chess Race' ahead of their geopolitical rivals.

History could have been different if Fischer had chosen to play Karpov in 1975. For me, any speculation about what might have happened is a waste of time. He simply chose not to play; it wasn't due to any external factors. But I digress. Let's move on.

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1976

World - The Launch Of The Concorde

Now, let us focus once again on some advances in aviation technology. 1976 was a very special year for the aeronautical industry as the famous Concorde, a supersonic airliner jointly developed by the UK and France, was launched. It could reach almost twice the speed of sound.

Construction of the prototypes began in 1965. However, it was not until October 1975 that it received its French certificate of airworthiness, with the UK following suit in December. Consequently, its first commercial flight did not take place until the following year.

The Concorde was a tailless aircraft with a narrow fuselage, ogival delta wings, and a drooping nose for better visibility when landing. It could carry up to 128 passengers. It was also the first airliner to have fly-by-wire flight controls. Unfortunately, due to high noise pollution, operational costs, and a fatal crash on 25 July 2000, the model was retired in 2003.

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Chess - Olympiad Boycott

1976 was also the year of one of the most controversial editions of the Chess Olympiad in history. Held in Haifa, Israel, the event was boycotted by the Soviet Union and all its Eastern European allies, as well as many Arab nations, as a political statement against Israel and its policies towards other Middle Eastern states.

The Soviet Chess Federation was the first to call for the competition to be cancelled. When this was not accepted, they decided not to take part. Meanwhile, the Arab nations also organised their own separate 'Against Chess Olympiad' in Tripoli, Lebanon.

Obviously, the absence of some of the most prominent chess-playing countries had a significant impact on the quality of the games played at the official Olympiad. However, the alternative event was also not attended by the USSR, which made both rather empty.

Still, it is my duty to inform you of the outcome of the competitions. The winners of the official tournament were the USA, followed by the Netherlands in second place and England in third. Among the most famous players to participate were Jan Timman, Miguel Najdorf, and Luděk Pachman.

The counterpart Olympiad, organized in protest, was, to be honest, of a very low standard in terms of chess and was more of a symbolic protest. El Salvador won, followed by Tunisia and Pakistan, three nations with almost no history in the sport.

New Zealand played the main event and finished 21st, so you can imagine how bad the level was.

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1979

World - Iranian Revolution

The final significant historical event to be mentioned is the Iranian Revolution of 1979, a popular uprising that overthrew Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi and established an Islamic Republic. The main causes were public discontent over his autocratic rule and economic issues, as well as the perceived influence of Western culture in the country.

The revolution was led by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, who remained in charge of Iran until 1989. It involved widespread strikes and demonstrations, which culminated in the government abdicating and Khomeini rising to power. The new regime established a theocratic structure, granting the clergy significant control over the political and social aspects of life.

As with almost every revolution, there was suppression of political dissent and exclusion of former allies. My readers are familiar with my views on states influenced by religion, so I will spare you from it this time, but I hope this sentence is sufficient.

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Chess - Yasser Seirawan's Rise

Although there were no major chess events this year, something quite interesting caught my attention. While researching this article, I discovered that Yasser Seirawan won the World Junior Chess Championship in 1979, which was the first major achievement of his life.

In case you don't know who I am talking about, he is a Syrian-born American chess grandmaster who won the United States championship four times during his career, reaching the top 10 in the world in 1990.

However, it is Seirawan's status as a respected chess author, famous for his 'Winning Chess' series of seven books, that really makes him very relevant in the chess world.

You can check the starting rank and find out more about this youth competition here: 18th World Junior Chess Championship.

As you can see, he was the eighth-best-ranked player before the tournament started. I honestly have never heard about any of the other players, though. Perhaps I am too young or just don’t know enough about the history of chess, but it seems to me that Seirawan became the most famous of them all.

Below is his game against the Argentinian player Gerardo Barbero in round 8.

If you want my opinion on his books, I tried reading one of them once, but soon gave up because I found it a bit too complicated for my level at the time. However, I will not be unfair here; maybe I should give them another chance now that my rating is much higher.

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CONCLUSION

If you are still here, thank you very much for reading another episode! I hope you have learnt something new and are looking forward to the next ones. The plan is to publish two more episodes before the end of 2025. Firstly, we will cover the final twenty years of the 20th century. After that, we will move on to the period from 2000 until today.

Below, you will find a short table summarizing all the information presented in the above article, which hopefully helps you to understand how our beloved game fared while the outside world was in turmoil.

Writing these texts has helped me to put things into perspective, and I hope this is also conveyed to my readers. Having an overview like this makes me appreciate the moment much more than if I just read about chess occasions in isolation from the global context.

That’s all for today, folks! Stay safe, and if you are an avid reader, you know that we will meet again on 30 September. I am planning to write a 'Typical Vanessa' post, one of those nonsense pieces that I try to make work somehow!

Let's hope for the best and see you soon!